Between The Sea And The Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore (Review)

I started my awesome Merbooks challenge this year with this book. If you haven't started yours yet, get going! It's going to be fantastic!

Here's the synopsis of the book from Goodreads before I start.

For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren--the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood--a dashing young man named Alander, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alander band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship . . . and ignite the emotions for a love so great, it cannot be bound by sea, land, or air.

I had a lot of really high expectations for this book, and sad to say, a lot of them didn't come true.

1. There's no real danger in the story, besides losing their sire belt *coughcoughvirginitycoughcough*. Sure, it hurts to walk on land. But there is no driving danger for the mermaids or the winged people, which puts little drive into the plot.
2.Esmerine is hopelessly boring. And so is everyone else in the story. I connected with none of the characters and none of them even felt the slightest bit real.
3. The book wasn't intricate and felt more aimed at middle grade readers, save for a lot of sexual references (which were annoying and ugly). There was no pizzazz.
4.The Mermaids eat fish. I hate to say this, because I know a lot of fish eat other fish (insert Social  Network references here) but this seemed a bit like cannibalism to me. And on a similar note, and this is a really small nitpick, but the food is all human stuff and not magical :(
5. The winged/finned romance is....well pointless. I didn't feel any sparks, and it certainly wasn't very fun to read about ALL THE TIME. This is where a lot of Young Adult authors start to lose me. They concentrate way too much on the romance of it all.
But despite a lot of flaws, I still managed to enjoy bits and pieces of the book. It referenced some of the original mermaid myths. But altogether, it's pretty skip-able.

Get Unleashed...

Today the finalized cover for Tempest Unleashed, the 2012 sequel to last year's fin-tastic Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs, was officially debuted on Tracy's blog. Here's the cover:

Below is the synopsis. If you haven't read the first book yet, read at your own risk, because minor spoilers may be lurking below.
Tempest Maguire is happy with her decision to embrace her mermaid nature and live among her mother’s clan within the ocean’s depths. Even though training to one day ascend the throne for the aging mermaid queen is rigorous, she finds refuge in the arms of Kona, the selkie who first opened her up to her mermaid side. But when word comes that one of her brothers has been gravely injured on land, Tempest immediately rushes to his side—which also brings her back to her old flame, Mark. And in her absence, a deadly battle begins raging at the hands of Tempest’s old nemesis, the sea witch Tiamat. As the dangerous war erupts, Tempest’s two loves—Kona and Mark, sea and land—will collide for the first time, both to protect her and to force her to choose.
What do you guys think? Myself, I'm uber-excited! I've been waiting for this book for quite some time. Plus, I think this one's got a lot more mermaid action than the previous. As much as I love selkies, I prefer mermaids a whole lot more.
So, are you guys ready to be Unleashed?

H2O: Just Add Water Spin-Off Series In The Works?

Usually, when there's rumors about things going on in the H2O world, I ignore them, because it's usually just rumors. Being that I don't even live in the country where the show is filmed, it makes it even more difficult to keep up with news. But Wikipedia now features a small tidbit of information that made me wonder if it was legit or not. Of course, Wikipedia's usually wrong, but guess what? Not this time! The Wikipedia article linked back to an actual site of upcoming Australian productions, and it turns out that the H2O spinoff is listed as one of them! Read the decription of this new show, Mako: Island of Secrets, below:

When 15-year-old Zac goes camping on Mako Island, he has no idea his every move is being monitored by real-life mermaids Sirena, Nixie and Lyla, whose job it is to ward off trespassers. When he comes into contact with the magical waters of the Moon Pool on the night of a full moon, Zac is given a taste of Mako’s powers, waking the next day to discover he
has been granted fin-like feet and the power to control water… causing all sorts of trouble for Sirena, Nixie and Lyla.

So it looks like the new show is going to feature a merman. That's an interesting change, because so far only mermaids have been featured in H2O. The show is scheduled for release in late 2012.

What do you guys think? Are you excited for a new H2O series?

Are You Up For A Challenge?

It's a new year, and I'm super-excited about it. Why? Because this year is filled with mermaid books galore, and I'm ready for some heavy reading! But not only am I excited for all these mermaid books, I'm also really looking forward to the first ever MerBooks Reading Challenge.
For those aware of this blog's origins, it began as a group for mermaid-book lovers on the social networking site Goodreads. And for the first time since the group's launch, we're holding a year-long reading challenge. In a nutshell (read: seashell), you have a year to read ten mermaid books. Doesn't seem too hard, right?
If you want to join in on the fun, go here: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/33768._O_MERBOOKS_The_Group_For_All_Things_Mermaid_O_
It's free to join Goodreads, and you'll be among the first to learn about upcoming mermaid books, talk with authors, and talk about all things mermaid!
Hope to see you there!